Intra-articular corticosteroid injections (IACI) are commonly used interventions for pain relief in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Biomarkers may be helpful in further elucidating how IACI exert their effect. The aim of this study is to look at the response of biomarkers of cartilage and bone metabolism after IACI in knee OA. Eighty subjects with symptomatic knee OA [45% male, mean age (SD) 64 (11) years] underwent routine knee joint injection with 40 mg triamcinolone acetonide and 4 ml 1% lignocaine. Knee pain (as pain subscale of WOMAC VAS) and biomarkers [C-telopeptides of type-II collagen (uCTX-II), and N-telopeptides of type-I collagen in urine; cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), hyaluronic acid, N-terminal propeptide of type-IIA collagen, and human cartilage glycoprotein-39 (YKL-40) in serum] were measured at baseline and 3 weeks after IACI. Radiographic severity of disease was evaluated using knee radiographs. Median uCTX-II, a cartilage degradation marker, was lower at 3 weeks post IACI compared with baseline: 306.3 and 349.9 ng/mmol, respectively (p < 0.01), which remained significant after Bonferroni correction. Apart from a weak trend of lower sCOMP post IACI (p = 0.089), other biomarkers showed no change after IACI. Both baseline uCTX-II values and the change in uCTX-II from baseline to 3 weeks post injection correlated with radiographic severity of joint space narrowing, but not osteophyte grade. No association between uCTX-II and pain was observed. This observational study suggests that IACI in knee OA may reduce cartilage degradation in the short term.
Information about the distribution of effusion within the arthritic knee joint should be considered in selecting an anatomical approach for arthrocentesis. We recorded ultrasound measurements of fluid distribution in the knees of patients attending our clinic for knee injections under ultrasound guidance. In a cross-sectional observational study, we used high-resolution ultrasound (US) to record measurements of maximum fluid depth in the medial, midline and lateral regions of the suprapatellar pouch (SPP) in 46 patients with arthritis attending for routine US-guided injection of the knee. Mean fluid depth [in millimetres, (SD)] was significantly greater in the lateral SPP [9.2 (5.1)] than in the medial [6.5 (4.6)] or the midline [5.9 (3.7)] regions with the knee in relaxed full extension (p < 0.001 for comparison of lateral SPP with both midline and medial SPP). Small effusions were more commonly detected in the lateral SPP than elsewhere. In patients with painful knee arthritis, fluid distributes maximally to the lateral SPP in the extended knee. This has implications regarding the anatomical approach to arthrocentesis that clinicians should choose to perform and teach.
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